The Ord-Tempered Harpsichord

A unique opportunity to hear the rare 1785 Longman & Broderip (manufactured by Thomas Culliford) Venetian Swell harpsichord in a programme of music that explores all the tonal colours of this instrument.

In the late 19th century, it unfortunately fell into the hands of Arnold Dolmetsch who, misguidedly, decided to convert the instrument into a double-manual harpsichord, in the course of which much of the original Machine-Stop mechanism was removed, and the original keyboard and name batten discarded.

The harpsichord used for this recording came into the possession of Alexander Mackenzie of Ord in 1965.After a considerable period of careful thought, the owner finally decided to restore it to its original single-manual state, hand-crafting the new keyboard and Machine-Stop mechanism.

This recording by Mark Swinton (with additional tracks performed by Kenneth Mobbs) is the realisation of the late Alexander Mackanzie of Ord’s work to restore this rare instrument to its original glory.